15 Life on a Deserted Island

CHAPTER 15 Life on a Deserted Island Over the next few weeks, I worked hard to improve my camp. It needed to be bigger to store all of my supplies. After many trial runs, I made a table and a chair. This completely surprised me at the time, for I was never much of a carpenter. Time and effort taught me that I could build, carve, or make anything as long as I set my mind to it.

第十五章荒岛上的生活在接下来的几个星期里，我努力改善我的营地。 它需要更大一点来存放我所有的物资。 经过多次尝试，我做了一张桌子和一把椅子。 这完全出乎我的意料，因为我从来就不擅长做木匠。 时间和努力告诉我，只要我下定决心，我就可以建造、雕刻或制作任何东西。

The objects I created might have looked rough, but at least they worked—and that was far more important to me. My days now had a clear routine. I walked out in the mornings, until about eleven o'clock. These walks were for exercise, but also for hunting. I discovered some wild birds that I could eat, in addition to the goats. It was important for me to use every part of the animals I killed. I used their coats. I ate their meat. I never killed for sport: My powder was too precious, and my conscience would have hated it anyway. The days were hot. After my long walk in the morning, I usually took a nap. As soon as the sun would start its decline, I would make dinner and start to work on my various different projects. I made candles. I wrote in my diary. I carved bowls for food—anything to pass the time. On one of my walks, I was happy to

我创建的对象可能看起来很粗糙，但至少它们行得通——这对我来说更重要。 我的生活现在有了清晰的日程安排。 我每天早上都出去散步，一直走到十一点左右。 这些散步是为了锻炼身体，也是为了打猎。 除了山羊，我还发现了一些可以吃的野鸟。 对我来说，利用我杀死的动物的每一个部位是很重要的。 我用他们的外套。我吃了它们的肉。 我从来不为了好玩而杀人：我的火药太珍贵了，而且我的良心也会讨厌它的。 天气很热。早上走了很长一段路后，我通常会小睡一会儿。 太阳一落山，我就做晚饭，开始做各种不同的项目。 我做了蜡烛。我在日记中写道。 我刻碗吃东西——用来打发时间的。 在一次散步中，我很高兴

discover an ironwood tree in the woods. "Such a strong wood," I said to myself. "I can use it to make a spade, and even a grindstone to help keep my tools sharp." Strong wood, indeed! It took me many hours of chopping with my axe to even cut a bit of wood from the tree. But the tools I made were indispensable to me, and all my hard work paid off. Time flew. In the blink of an eye, I had been on the island for more than three months. Then, the rainy season arrived. The climate had tipped me off that there might be a rainy season, so I had spent much of the previous months trying to build a better covering for my so-called tent. It was fast turning into a proper building, with walls, a door, and a good, solid roof. I carved shingles and then used palm leaves for insulation. It still leaked some nights—that's when I preferred to sleep in my storage cave!

在树林里发现一棵铁木。 “这么结实的木头，”我自言自语道。 “我可以用它做铁锹，甚至可以做磨刀石，让我的工具保持锋利。” 真是结实的木头！我用斧头砍了好几个小时才从树上砍下一点木头。 但我制作的工具对我来说是不可或缺的，我所有的努力都得到了回报。 时间飞。转眼间，我在岛上已经呆了三个多月了。 然后，雨季来了。 天气告诉我可能会有一个雨季，所以在之前的几个月里，我花了很多时间试图为我的所谓帐篷搭一个更好的覆盖物。 它很快就变成了一座真正的建筑，有墙，有门，还有一个结实的屋顶。 我雕刻了木瓦，然后用棕榈叶做绝缘材料。 有时候晚上还是会漏水——那时候我更喜欢睡在储物洞里！

From January to April, I fortified my fence. The stronger it became, the safer I felt. I made a number of other improvements to my house that season, and soon I was as comfortable as can be. My nights were lit by candles, my house was dry (for the most part), and I had Shippy to keep me company. I woke up one morning that April completely surprised to find that some of the rotten feed I had thrown away had sprouted. There were great green stalks on my plain. I was pleased to discover that it was barley and rice—they were perfectly healthy crops, too! I remembered dumping the seed all over the place to empty out the bag. I needed it to store my gunpowder. Nature is certainly amazing! I never would have expected the chicken feed to sprout up in my front lawn. But now that it was there, I was very glad it did. April was certainly full of surprises. But

从一月到四月，我加固了围栏。 它变得越强大，我就越觉得安全。 那个季节，我对我的房子做了许多其他的改进，很快我就尽可能地舒适了。 我的夜晚是由蜡烛照亮的，我的房子是干燥的（大部分时间），我有shipppy陪着我。 那年四月的一天早晨，我醒来时惊讶地发现，我扔掉的一些腐烂的饲料已经发芽了。 我的平原上长着绿色的大茎。 我很高兴地发现那是大麦和大米——它们也是非常健康的作物！我记得为了清空袋子，我把种子倒得到处都是。 我需要它来储存火药。 大自然真是太神奇了！我从来没有想到鸡饲料会在我家门前的草坪上发芽。 但现在它在那里，我很高兴它在那里。 四月当然充满了惊喜。 但

not all of them were good. One day when I was in my cave sorting out my supplies, the ground beneath my feet started to shake. There was a loud crack and rocks started to fall down around me. I was terrified. I ran outside quickly. The ground shook again, and then again. Then, as quickly as it started, it stopped. An earthquake! I had read about them in my youth, but had never experienced one myself. Well, I thought, I hope nothing like that ever happens again. I returned to my house and cleared out the rocks from my storage cave. Even though the rains slowed down by May, a great storm followed the earthquake. The morning after it finished, I took my usual walk down to the beach. There was something lying on the beach, and it didn't look like the seaweed or the driftwood I usually saw down there.

并不是所有的都是好的。 有一天，当我在洞穴里整理我的物资时，我脚下的地面开始摇晃。 啪的一声巨响，岩石开始在我周围落下。 我吓坏了。我飞快地跑到外面。 地面又震动了一次，然后又是一次。 然后，就像它开始的一样快，它停止了。 地震!我年轻时在书上读到过，但从未亲身经历过。 好吧，我想，我希望这样的事情不会再发生。 我回到家里，把储物洞里的石头清理了出来。 尽管到5月雨水减少了，但地震之后又来了一场大风暴。 演出结束后的第二天早上，我像往常一样去海滩散步。 海滩上躺着什么东西，看起来不像我平时看到的海藻或浮木。

"What's this?" I said out loud as I walked over to take a closer look. "Why, it's the ship!" I spent the morning collecting all the pieces and carrying them farther up on shore. Another keg of gunpowder had washed up on shore, too, but it was ruined by the water. Instead of returning home to take my usual nap, I spent the rest of the day trying to put the ship back together. It was hopeless, though. I decided just to save all the pieces. Maybe they would come in handy? It took me almost a month to completely take apart the ship. By mid-June, it was in pieces. I hid everything close to the beach. You just couldn't be too safe. Life on the island taught me many lessons. Not the first of which happened that June. Because I was spending so much time down by the water taking the ship apart, I was there to see a turtle. I was excited. After

“这是什么?”我大声说着，走过去仔细看了看。 “啊，是船！”我花了一个上午收集所有的碎片，把它们搬到岸上更远的地方。 另一桶火药也被冲上岸，但被水毁了。 我没有像往常一样回家睡个午觉，而是在那天剩下的时间里努力把飞船组装起来。 然而，这是无望的。我决定保留所有的碎片。 也许它们会派上用场？ 我花了将近一个月的时间才把这艘船完全拆开。 到6月中旬，它已经支离破碎。 我把所有东西都藏在海滩附近。 你只是不能太安全。 岛上的生活教会了我很多东西。 不是第一次发生在六月。 因为我花了很多时间在水里把船拆开，所以我在那里看到了一只乌龟。 我很兴奋。后